While college and university students have long been associated with newfound independence, alcohol and unrest, the phenomenon of celebratory rioting, which combines these key elements of student culture, is relatively new. While incidents have occurred since 1985, their recent escalation in size, frequency, and property damages continues to raise public concern in many college and university towns across North America. Research indicates that celebratory riots result from large non-protest related assemblies of mostly students where alcohol is consumed freely, participants spontaneously engage in unruly behaviour, and police intervention invites resistant and aggressive responses from crowd members. However, such outbursts are often difficult to predict since they may emerge from a myriad of possible trigger events. In order to further interpret celebratory rioting, this thesis examines a number of individual-centred and event-centred crowd theories to determine what is known about crowd behaviour. This study concludes that the analysis of a celebratory riot event requires a process-rooted approach, such as the Value-Added model, to account for the situational factors which shape the event’s precursors, transactions and aftermath. This thesis focuses analytical attention on the annual Queen’s Homecoming Aberdeen street party in Kingston, Ontario which became riotous in 2005. This case study comprised an extensive media content analysis, Queen’s archival research, and direct observation at a number of student focus groups, committee meetings and student gatherings. This study, which concludes with an analysis of the non-riotous Homecoming celebrations of 2006, revealed that the riot of 2005 was hardly unique; instead, it followed decades of intermittent student disturbances in the Queen’s student neighbourhood. Furthermore, the 2005 Aberdeen Street riot ultimately parallels the story of so many celebratory riots which have recently occurred and continue to emerge in a number of college and university towns across North America. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2010-02-23 08:18:16.333

This thesis focuses on the discourse strategies investigative journalism uses to disclose social tensions in China. It delivers a theoretical framework for the understanding of investigative journalism in general and its Chinese counterpart in particular. Furthermore, the author elaborates on the possibilities, strategies and limitations of investigative journalism in China. Investigative stories that disclose three major social tensions in China were selected for analysis. These social tensions focus on “crimes against the underprivileged”, “abuse in education” and “desperate crimes”. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) perceives these social tensions as a potential threat to its legitimacy of leadership, news about them are considered to be highly sensitive while at the same time useful in alerting the CCP to solve them. The research has found that most of the strategies used are “circumvention of value” and “interviewee opinion formation” followed by the strategy “open end”. However, Chinese investigative journalism has to toe a thin line in its practice.

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of family caregivers who cared for a stroke survivor throughout weekend passes from an in-patient rehabilitation facility. Following a Husserlian phenomenological perspective, I interviewed 15 family caregivers of stroke survivors on two separate occasions: within one week after their first scheduled weekend pass, and again two weeks after their final transition home. Interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, and were audio recorded. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the principles outlined by Giorgi (1997). Analysis of the caregivers’ descriptions of their experiences led to five themes: (i) Caregivers feel overwhelmed throughout the weekend pass, (ii) Access to supportive resources influences caregiving experiences, (iii) Caregivers adjust to the weekend pass throughout its subsequent use, (iv) Caregivers feel a responsibility and a need to be included by health professionals in the care of their family stroke survivor, and (v) Caregivers describe the weekend pass as a means towards recovery. This study has implications for future health services. By appropriately training and supporting caregivers throughout the weekend pass health care professionals can increase the positive experiences of caregivers, and optimize the opportunity to prepare caregivers and stroke survivors for the eventual transition home.

This qualitative study investigated the experiences of family caregivers who cared for a stroke survivor throughout weekend passes from an in-patient rehabilitation facility. Following a Husserlian phenomenological perspective, I interviewed 15 family caregivers of stroke survivors on two separate occasions: within one week after their first scheduled weekend pass, and again two weeks after their final transition home. Interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, and were audio recorded. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using the principles outlined by Giorgi (1997). Analysis of the caregivers’ descriptions of their experiences led to five themes: (i) Caregivers feel overwhelmed throughout the weekend pass, (ii) Access to supportive resources influences caregiving experiences, (iii) Caregivers adjust to the weekend pass throughout its subsequent use, (iv) Caregivers feel a responsibility and a need to be included by health professionals in the care of their family stroke survivor, and (v) Caregivers describe the weekend pass as a means towards recovery. This study has implications for future health services. By appropriately training and supporting caregivers throughout the weekend pass health care professionals can increase the positive experiences of caregivers, and optimize the opportunity to prepare caregivers and stroke survivors for the eventual transition home.

IMPCT is a global social enterprise dedicated to transforming low-income and vulnerable communities through education. Our business model involves branding and selling locally sourced products and investing the profits into a proven intervention to break the poverty cycle. Weekend Playcare is a case study of IMPCT Taiwan’s early childhood education program. This case study will illustrate the early education problems of aboriginal children that IMPCT discovered and identified. Additionally, IMPCT developed a business model to solve social issues. At the end of the case study, it will present the evaluation outcome of the Weekend Playcare project.

Yes / Routine administrative data have been used to show that patients admitted to hospitals over the weekend appear to have a higher mortality compared to weekday admissions. Such data do not take the severity of sickness of a patient on admission into account. Our aim was to incorporate a standardized vital signs physiological-based measure of sickness known as the National Early Warning Score to investigate if weekend admissions are: sicker as measured by their index National Early Warning Score; have an increased mortality; and experience longer delays in the recording of their index National Early Warning Score. Methods: We extracted details of all adult emergency medical admissions during 2014 from hospital databases and linked these with electronic National Early Warning Score data in four acute hospitals. We analysed 47,117 emergency admissions after excluding 1657 records, where National Early Warning Score was missing or the first (index) National Early Warning Score was recorded outside ±24 h of the admission time. Results: Emergency medical admissions at the weekend had higher index National Early Warning Score (weekend: 2.53 vs. weekday: 2.30, p

This thesis consists of three original short stories: "August Morning," "Weekend Idyll," and "Free Ride." In addition, an appendix has been added which contains "Hamilton House Roundabout," the original version of "Weekend Idyll." It is included to illustrate the dramatic changes that can occur in the writing process. "August Morning" focuses on a young man's struggle to gain his freedom from his family, particularly his overbearing father. Whether or not he succeeds is ultimately up to the reader. "Weekend Idyll" follows a young woman as she tries to live a dream she has long believed in. Ultimately, her vision is shattered. The final story, "Free Ride," centers on a hapless teenager who finds happiness only in the exhiliaration of racing. Ultimately, it kills him. I wrote stories rather than an analysis primarily for practical reasons. As a teacher I found an exercise in writing more readily transferrable to my classroom.

This paper documents a major shift in market microstructure during the period 1990 through 1999. In particular, a dramatic change in the pattern of cash flows by individual and institutional investors is documented. The question becomes, what effect this change has on day-of-the-week return patterns for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard and Poor's 500 index, and Standard and Poor's 500 index futures. I find Monday's return pattern has changed in the decade of the 1990's. Not only is Monday's mean return significantly large and positive for all indices, the entire anomalous pattern occurs from Monday's open to Monday's close - an intraday effect. In addition, I find evidence that trading volume is a factor in explaining the anomalous behaviour of Monday's returns. New York Stock Exchange trading volume is significantly lower on Mondays from the trading volume of other days of the week but the trading activity of individual investors is significantly higher. More recently, individual investors have increased their buying activity on Mondays relative to prior periods. Finally, Monday exhibits the largest returns in the first two trading hours when the Dow Jones Industrial Average returns are decomposed into hourly returns. The research emphasizes the dynamic nature of the time series patterns of stock returns and the suggestion day-of-the-week return patterns are not robust over time. Therefore, familiarity with market microstructure issues is just as important as the statistical techniques utilized.

High and equitable quality of care are core goals of the English National Health Service. Policy makers have experimented with various ways to improve quality, including use of financial incentives. The effects of these incentives on health outcomes and the distribution of care are not known. The aim of this study was to examine variations in hospital quality and outcomes at patient level under a financial incentive scheme in England. In October 2008 a financial incentive scheme under which quality of care was measured by process measures was introduced for 24 hospital Trusts in the North West of England. The process measures of care from this Advancing Quality initiative were linked at spell level to health outcomes and administrative hospital records. The data consisted of 252,284 spells between October 2008 and March 2013.First, I examined whether financially incentivised improvements in quality of care were associated with better patient outcomes. I examined how mortality and readmission were related to process measures using bivariate probit, probit, random effects and fixed effects estimations. I found that several of the incentivised process measures of care are associated with improved patient outcomes. I estimated that Advancing Quality saved 129 lives and avoided 121 readmissions over a four-and-a-half year period. Second I examined whether quality of care from a hospital incentive scheme is distributed equitably at a patient level. Multinomial and sequential logistic regressions were used to show that process measures of care overall were distributed in favour of patients from lower income score areas. Process measures of care delivered during an emergency admission were distributed in favour of patients from higher income score areas but this was driven by patient severity. Process measures based on advice appeared to be driven by capacity to benefit and were distributed in favour of patients from lower income score areas. Process measures of care for elective admissions regarding delivery of drugs were distributed equitably. Third, I examined if the quality of care was lower at the weekend. The in-hospital mortality rate is known to be higher for weekend admissions than for weekday admissions but it is not known whether this was due to lower quality of care. Using logistic regressions, incentivised quality of care was found to be consistent throughout the week. The weekend mortality effect can be explained by patient volume, which suggested that patient case mix may be different between weekdays and weekends. Overall, quality of care under an incentive scheme was found to positively impact on health outcomes, be distributed equitably, and be the same at weekends as weekdays. Further research is needed using quality of care indicators from all Trusts in the English National Health Service. Furthermore further research examining how trusts exclude patients from financial incentive schemes is also needed.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(社会健康医学) / 甲第22381号 / 社医博第103号 / 新制||社||医11(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科社会健康医学系専攻 / (主査)教授 中山 健夫, 教授 小池 薫, 教授 福原 俊一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Public Health / Kyoto University / DFAM